“I have proof,” Lina said. “I saw the fucker who killed them. Fat Boy.”
“Mr. Creepy?” Elain asked.
Lina nodded. “One and the same. And since he did it after Liam met with them, my guess is he’s after you.”
“Ain seemed pretty insistent on trying to keep this whole thing hush-hush from the Clan bigwigs,” Elain said. “Like he’s afraid the Clan will actually hand me over.”
“You have to understand something,” Lacey said. “We don’t want another Clan war. Anything that draws outside attention to our affairs puts us all at risk. Rodolfo Abernathy knows that. He’s willing to risk it.”
“So you’re saying she not only has to worry about those asshats, but asshats from her own Clan?” Lina asked incredulously. “I can’t believe Ain and the guys would agree to that.”
“No. To keep the peace, the Clan Council would agree to uphold the oath.” The old Seer slyly smiled. “Who’s to say you wouldn’t disappear without a trace, however?”
Elain followed her train of thought. “And then the Abernathy asshats couldn’t complain I wasn’t handed over, and the onus is on them.”
Lacey touched her nose.
“Sooo,” Elain slowly said, “what you’re saying is that I shouldn’t worry?”
“Oh, I’d worry,” Lacey said. “They’re bug-nuts crazy. However, what happens in public isn’t the same as what will happen behind the scenes.”
“Why doesn’t someone just fry Rodolfo’s nuts and get it over with?” Lina asked as she examined her fingernails. “I’d be happy to oblige.” She waved her hand in the air. “Ooh, pick me, pick me!”
“And perhaps that’s what should happen,” Lacey said. “I haven’t seen his future. I haven’t seen anything about him in a few centuries, to be quite honest.”
“Do you know their Seer?” Elain asked.
Lacy shook her head. “They haven’t had a Seer in over two hundred years. He killed the last one because she dared tell him the truth.”
“Killed her?” both younger women asked together.
Elain felt the wave of sadness from Lacey. “Yes,” the older woman quietly said. “He couldn’t take hearing the truth. He saw her as a threat to his leadership.” Her eyes looked bright, like she was close to tears. “She was my cousin. We were as close as sisters. Once again, we have no concrete proof it was him, but from what she told me before she died, I’m sure of his involvement. Without reservation.”
Her expression hardened. “Several of the people Charles and Ellie helped escape were Abernathy Seers. They relocated to other Clans. A few to other shifter races entirely. They were rightfully so afraid of Rodolfo Abernathy that they willingly exiled themselves completely from their own kind.”
Lina snorted. “He sounds like a special kind of fucktard.” She put one hand to her eyes, with the other stretched out before her, and feigned a vision. “I foresee him exploding in a blaze of barbecued wolf if he fucks with my BFF, Elain, or any of her Clan.”
Lacey laughed. “You’d probably be carried around on more than a few shoulders and celebrated as a hero.”
“Ya think?” Lina asked. “If he’s as bad as you say, sounds like I could take a few bids to off the bastard.”
“So what about this Code of the Ancients Ain keeps mentioning?” Elain asked. “What the hell is it?”
Lacey shrugged. “It’s a set of guidelines that the honorable wolves stick to. An Alpha rules, protects, and cares for their pack. An Alpha’s mate submits to their Alpha. An Alpha must love, protect, and cherish their mate, do anything in their power to keep the mate happy. No wolf will ever take the mate of another. There are some others, but those are the most important ones.”
“And what happens,” Elain asked, “if a wolf doesn’t abide by the Code?”
“Well, for starters, they’re shunned by their Clan. Which might not sound like much, but it was a huge deal back in olden days when wolves had to band together for protection and survival. A lone wolf shunned by others was liable to be killed.”
“So what happens now?” Lina asked. “Are they, like, added to the ‘straight to voice mail’ list on people’s phones?”
Lacey smiled. “No, it’s a little more complicated than that. Remember, wolves and other shifters normally have much longer life spans than humans. They usually have complex social networks of family and friends. Allies. To suddenly be cut off from that might not seem like a lot, but to a wolf, it’s everything.”
“Well, that settles everything,” Elain said. “I’m mated to the guys. Abernathy’s fucked.” She grinned. “Not a damn thing he can do about it.”
Lacey tipped her head. “Eh, not exactly. One of the Codes is that existing blood oaths will be honored. And since Maureen was of our Clan, that has to be honored. No one makes blood oaths anymore for just this reason. But back then, it was the only way to prevent a Clan war.”
“I reeeally want to take this fucker out,” Lina said with a growl.
Elain gave her a fist bump.
Elain lost track of time while they talked. She finally had not just one, but two women she could open up to and unburden herself about everything she’d been through in the past several weeks. In turn, Lina and Lacey had done their best to pass on as much knowledge as they could about what being a Seer entailed. They’d even tried to contact Baba Yaga, but the woman was apparently out of the office, much to Lina’s irritation.
“Just like that damn woman,” Lina groused. “I don’t need her, she’s in my damn face. When I want to talk to her, she’s not home. She needs a damn cell phone.”
“Oh,” Lacey said, “she hates those things.”
“What about Callie?” Elain asked. “Didn’t you say she’s her sister?”
Lacey shook her head. “She doesn’t have any more sway over her sister than we do.”
“What’s going on with her?” Elain asked.
Lina frowned, but Lacey seemed to know what she was talking about. “I talked to Daniel the other day, and this is to be kept amongst us three, by the way. He says she’s having nightmares every night, but she doesn’t remember them.” She leveled her gaze at Elain. “What did you feel?”
Elain shrugged. “She was friendly. Nice. But it’s like there was something sad there, too.”
Lacey looked at Lina. “Did you sense anything?”
Lina frowned. “No. That bothers me, too.”
“Don’t let it. Whatever it is, if it has any bearing on future events, it will become apparent in its own time. It’s nothing to worry our Clan about.”
Elain raised her hand. “Okay, I have another question. What’s the difference between a pack and a Clan? I keep hearing those two terms.”
“With the wolves,” Lacey said, “it’s just a difference of smaller and larger. We have a Clan Council, that’s like the governing body of our whole extended family. A pack would be closer-knit family. Like you and your men. Perhaps even Micah and his mate, depending on how close Aindreas is to his cousin. It could include even more extended family than that, depending on how close the relatives are.”
The sun had crossed a fairly good portion of the sky by the time they finished talking, and Lina had made several trips back and forth across the beach area to go “water the dirt,” as she termed it, behind another large boulder.
As they started toward the path leading from the beach, Jasper prancing behind them, Elain asked, “So what do I tell the guys?”
“I don’t understand the question,” Lacey said.
“They’re going to want to know about all this…stuff,” Elain said. “What do I tell them?”
“As much or as little as you want. There’s no reason to hide any of this from your mates.”